I came across a New York Times article from April 17th (yeah, I know I am tardy but I just found it) written by Marci Alboher. I have not read anything by Marci prior to finding this article and after exploring her work in some detail I find her to be very impressive. The article germaine (great work huh?) to this blog post is called The New Workplace Flirtation and the basic premise is that LinkedIn primarily, and other social media sources secondarily, have provided a an environment where people can be available for and search out new opportunities without setting off alarms within the company where they are currently employed.
In fact, in some cases, their current employer actually encourages their participation in LinkedIn for legitimate networking and business purposes. All the while the unanticipated side effect is that the person is now available for networking and approach for new opportunities. Marci calls this a sort of online dating scenario and equates it to flirting. I think this is spot on.
Sure, we in recruiting have known all along about this interesting paradox of LinkedIn. While it presents an amazing opportunity for professionals to network, share ideas and do business it is also a recruiters dream come true in terms of gaining intelligence, sourcing, networking and finding talent. The robust profiles, work/professional referrals, Q&A and other intricate features of LinkedIn provide any recruiter who is capable of basic Internet search the tools they need to find talent. You don't even have to be a good sourcer to figure this out. It is quite simple really. That said, someone still needs to execute well in the recruiting phase of the process (executing the recruiting call, identifying the career wound, managing the relationship, pushing/pulling the candidate through the process etc.) but I have written a ton on this already.
I believe this interesting paradox is what makes LinkedIn stand alone as the pre-eminent social media tool. It addresses three major objectives of any successful professional in any space - networking, career development and career advancement. I think Marci is right when she wonders if there is another social media tool that accomplishes all three of this professional objectives. I have tinkered around with others, Facebook being the most notable, and as of yet I am not finding anything that comes close to matching LinkedIn for the environment they provide.
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